Dr. Charles Gerardi, age 76, pleaded guilty to obstructing a Medicare audit. He faces a maximum penalty of 5 years in federal prison.

According to the plea agreement, in 2012, a federal Medicare auditor performed an audit of Gerardi’s employer related to 350 claims, and more than 2,300 individual services that Gerardi had purportedly performed. In response to the audit request, Gerardi provided the auditor with a series of fabricated records, which were designed to fraudulently support the medical necessity of the claims. Gerardi knew that the claims under review were not otherwise supportable, and fabricated the records for the purpose of impeding the auditor's performance of the audit.

This case was investigated by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services – Office of Inspector General.